Permit for borehole

I own a big triple story house in Upanga, and wish to construct a borehole in my property. My question is: why should I have to get a permit for something I want to do on my own land? Is it not in breach of my constitutional freedom? What should I do?
16 January 2012

You are taking your so-called constitutional rights a little too far. Merely having a right of occupancy doesn’t entitle you to be the king of the land you live on. The rights you have are surface rights within boundaries of the law. Anything you do beyond that requires permission and rightly so. For example, if you believe your land has gold, and you intend to conduct mining operations, there is a whole process you would need to follow that may also end up in the revocation of your title to enable the mining to take place. Additionally, the gold does not belong to you either, even though it might be under your land.

To construct a borehole, the water authorities must permit you to do so. This is because boreholes can have adverse effects on other water supplies, including other bore halls next door and beyond.

The Water Resources Management Act (WRMA) specially provides for this. It says that any person who, contrary to the Act’s provisions, constructs, sinks or enlarges a well or borehole without a groundwater permit duly granted by the Basin Water Board commits an offence. Anyone convicted of such an offence shall be liable to a fine of not less than TZS 500,000, or imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or both.

You must also note that the Water Utilisation (Control and Regulation) Act of 1974, which was repealed by the WRMA, set strict conditions on borehole. This Act required a minimum distance between boreholes of 230 metres and stated that the maximum amount of water that could be extracted per day was not to exceed 22,700 litres. This is in the interest of equitable distribution and the efficient usage of water.
The law applies equally to all: it does not matter whether you own a triple storey house in Upanga, or elsewhere.